Sharon's Marketing Missive

I’ve been thinking on my listening skills lately. Or lack thereof, due to some communications issues that have come up. I think I’m a really good listener, in my personal life, but turns out I’m not as good as I could be. I want to jump in and fix things for people sometimes. Or I get tired of hearing the same old story, so I jump in then too. Or I think my idea is so brilliant, I have trouble keeping my mouth shut. Or… you get the idea! Hey my business is We Know Words. I'm sometimes ready to overwhelm with mine!

But good listening skills are paramount in my career as a freelance copywriter. Every project with a first-time client starts with a kickoff call during which we go through a long list of questions, whether they hired me as Website copywriter or a print project. The goal is for me to learn about the copywriting client’s customers: what are their pain points, what do they want to do better, etc. And listening is primarily what I do during those calls. That’s how I’m able to help my copywriting clients talk to their customers, not at them.

But there’s another level of listening, beyond personal, beyond being a conscientious copywriter. And that’s asking customers to interact with us as businesses, whether we’re in small business marketing or big.

Customers want to have their say! That’s why we have an explosion of Web sites like Yelp and YouTube. Customers don’t want to just be fed content, no matter how great the copywriting. They want to contribute it too!

Is your business a good listener? You’d probably say yes, thinking if someone calls customer service, they get listened to. But there are multiple ways to engage your customers and solicit their input:

• Ask for feedback in your email newsletters, or use a survey tool to ask customers to vote
• Ask for comments on your blog
• When you ship an order, entice the customer to comment on your Web site, about their experience or the product
• In your email copywriting, when you send out transactional emails like order confirmations, ask for input or comments that way
• If you use blogs as marketing tools, put their comments in your blog
• Set up a wiki so customers can contribute content that way
• Have a Facebook group where customers can write on your wall

But then, as all good listeners must do, pay attention!! Don’t just solicit the input then ignore it.

Asking for and listening to customer input has multiple benefits, for small business marketing to huge corporate marketing. Today, for example, I listened in on a discovery call a copywriting client was conducting with a prospect. Why? So I could hear what the prospect had to say, not the client’s translation of it. Now when I work on their email copywriting, I’ll be able to play up the aspects the prospect loved, clarify the aspects that were confusing, and reassure about the aspects that were a little scary.

We got that info straight from the horse’s mouth, and my client listened.

Plus customers like to be listened too, so you're creating all that goodwill too!

Got a way to get input from your customers and to make sure you listen to it? Post a comment! J